Embodiments of the disclosed technique relate to turbomachines, and more specifically to a filled abradable seal component, an associated method of manufacturing, the turbomachines including the filled abradable seal component, and regulating windage heating in turbomachines.
Seals are often used to minimize leakage of fluid in a clearance defined between a stationary component and a rotatable component of a turbomachine. Typically, seal includes teeth formed on the rotatable component thereby obstructing a flow of the fluid and minimizing the leakage of the fluid through the clearance. However, during certain transient operational conditions of the turbomachine such as startup, the rotatable component may move along an axial direction or a radial direction in relation to the stationary component. Such movement of the rotatable component may cause the teeth to rub against the stationary component, resulting in damage of the teeth and the stationary component. To address such problems, in the art, an abradable honeycomb seal component including a plurality of honeycomb cells is coupled to the stationary component. Thus, during such movement of the rotatable component, the teeth may rub against the abradable honeycomb seal component, without damaging the teeth and the stationary component. However, the plurality of honeycomb cells in the abradable honeycomb seal component may entrap some portion of the fluid, resulting in losing swirling motion of the fluid along the clearance and increasing tangential slip between the fluid and the rotatable component, thereby increasing windage heating along the clearance. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved abradable seal component, an associated method for manufacturing the improved abradable seal component, and regulating windage heating of fluid in a clearance of a turbomachine.